Creamy Brie and Apple Soup

I saw this soup on the Whole Foods recipe page and started salivating.  I loves me some Brie and it’s always good with apples – so this is right up my alley. 

picture courtesy of Whole Foods

Turn a bit of leftover Brie (that is if you actually have any leftover) into a rich and creamy fall soup with the combination of sweet Braeburn and tart Granny Smith apples.

If you can’t find Braeburn, you might substitute Jazz or Gala.  If you don't like Brie, try it with white cheddar - after all, apples and cheese are a classic combination!

This would be great to serve along with Almond Flour Biscuits or maybe some Zucchini Tots - yummy!

Creamy Brie and Apple Soup

makes 4 to 6 servings

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 medium sweet onion, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and chopped

2 Braeburn apples, peeled, cored and chopped

4 cups vegetable broth

3 ounces Brie, rind removed (1/2 cup chopped)

1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves

In a medium saucepot, heat oil over medium-high heat until hot. Add onion and celery, and cook 8 to 10 minutes or until browned and tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in apples and broth, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-high and simmer about 10 minutes or until apples are very tender. 

Add the Brie and salt, and purée with an immersion blender (or carefully transfer mixture to a blender) and blend until smooth.

Return soup to the saucepot and heat over medium heat until hot. Serve garnished with thyme.

Nutritional Info (provided by Whole Foods):

Per Serving: Serving size: about 1 cup, 160 calories (60 from fat), 7g total fat, 3g saturated fat, 15mg cholesterol, 310mg sodium, 22g carbohydrate (3g dietary fiber, 16g sugar), 4g protein

Pumpkin Curry Soup

It’s beginning to look a lot like….Pre-Christmas?

recipe courtesy of Amanda at Free Coconut Recipes

Yep, it’s only October but the stores already have the decorations up.  I get confused about what holiday comes next.  That must be why I have pumpkin on the brain.  And don’t wait until Thanksgiving to make this – any cold day will do! 

One of the ladies at work makes her version of Pumpkin Curry Soup and brings it in her crockpot along with a loaf of fresh bread.  Heavenly! 

This recipe was submitted to Free Coconut Recipes by Amanda in Hot Springs, CA – thanks Amanda!  She also took the lovely picture.  I have shaky hands so I prefer to use other people’s pictures so you don’t get nauseated looking at them!

Pumpkin Curry Soup

makes 4 servings

recipe courtesy of www.freecoconutrecipes.com

2 tablespoons coconut oil

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 teaspoon powdered ginger

1 teaspoon ground cumin or cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

4 finely minced garlic cloves

3 1/2 cups pumpkin puree

2 cups chicken broth

2 cups unsweetened coconut milk

Salt to taste

Minced cilantro for garnish and flavor

Heat the oil in a heavy soup pan, medium-low heat.

Add the curry, ginger, cumin and red pepper flakes.

Stir for a couple of minutes while the seasonings roast and become fragrant. Do not walk away - they can burn in a flash and you will have to start over. Add the garlic and stir for a moment. Do not let the garlic brown. The flavor will overpower this delicate soup if you do.

Pour the chicken broth into the spice mixture and stir well. Loosen anything that may be sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Add the pumpkin puree into the pot, and mix very well.  Try using an immersion blender or carefully combine in a large blender.

Warm the coconut milk separately and then add to the blended pumpkin mixture. Season with sea salt according to your own taste.

Serve with a sprinkling of finely minced cilantro on the top. The green of the cilantro sparkles against the orange hue of the soup. It also adds a subtle earthy quality.

Southwestern Chili

It's Thursday night and I'm in a panic because I don't have something ready to post for Friday!  However, this previously posted recipe has been on my mind all day.  It was one of my dad's favorite meals for a family gathering.  It's been a year since he passed away and since we called him 'Poppa' we are having a memorial family get together this weekend and calling it Poppalooza...hard to believe it's been a year and not a day goes by that I don't have something special to share with him and then realize that it'll have to wait.

This is a very tasty meal, especially on a rainy day.  What's even better about this chili is that you can portion out and freeze it to give to friends or save for another rainy day.

The veggies can be flexible according to your tastes.  I like to triple the recipe for when I have my family over.  My dad loved it with cheesy cornbread muffins.

Southwestern Chili

makes 4 servings

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 carrots, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

1/2 pound ground beef or turkey

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 15-ounce cans black beans, rinsed

1 tablespoon chili powder (more or less to taste)

Kosher salt and black pepper

1/2 cup corn kernels

1/2 cup grated cheddar (2 ounces)

2 green onions, sliced

garlic salt and cumin - to taste

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the carrots, onion and pepper and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Add the meat and cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until no longer pink, 3 to 5 minutes.

Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, until it is slightly darkened, 1 minute. Stir in the beans, chili powder, 3 cups water, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Simmer over medium heat until the vegetables are tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in the corn.

Divide the chili among bowls and top with the cheddar and scallions.

Print this recipe:  Southwestern Chili

This is one of my favorite pictures taken at the Family reunion in Iowa last July - my dad (actually smiling) and my daughter (you know her as The Kid).  If you're from Iowa you might recognize the 'House Divided' shirt my brother is wearing (go Hawks!)

Cream of Broccoli Soup

Let's continue warming ourselves up with lovely veggie soups this week.  Best of all, you can put the soup into a freezer bag, seal tightly and freeze for future use.  Just zap and sip!

Every single time I make Cream of Broccoli soup I look at it and say ‘I’m not gonna like this’ – but I always do!  I guess it’s not so purty as you’re making it but it turns out great.

So yes, you suppose correctly.  Pretty much any kind of vegetable can be made into soup, there is more or less a basic pattern to it but they all taste great.  And to make really great soup you do need some way to puree it; either with an immersion blender (also called a stick blender) or a regular blender, but the regular blender is more of a hassle.

For those of you who are a certain age group, you will be required to sing along with Dana Carvey - …choppin’ broccoleeeeeee…choppin’ broccoliiiiiii, -  during the cutting of the vegetables.

I also secretly chopped up some zucchini and threw it in with the onions because I needed to cook it soon and because the Kid doesn’t like it – what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.  Since you’re going to puree it, you could sneak all kinds of stuff in there.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

serves 4-6

1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 clove of garlic, chopped

16 oz broccoli florets, fresh (or frozen and thawed)

1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese

4 cups chicken or veggie broth

1/2 cup milk or cream or half & half

2 tbsp sour cream

salt and pepper

In a large soup pot, melt butter and olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add onion and cook three minutes until soft, add the garlic.

While onions are cooking, roughly chop up the broccoli and throw into the pot, and sauté in the onions and butter for a few minutes.

Add the broth, cover and simmer.  For fresh broccoli, cook about 10-15 minutes and for thawed broccoli, cook about 3-5 minutes.

Stir in the milk, cheese and sour cream into the pot and puree until smooth.  If you like your soup a bit thicker, combine 2 tablespoons of water and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch in a separate dish and mix into the soup until thickened.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Serve with a little dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of cheddar cheese if you’d like to appear all fancy and gourmet.

1/2 cup of soup = 1 vegetable serving and 1/4 fat serving, don't you think?

Print the recipe:  Cream of Broccoli Soup

Butternut Squash Soup

Is it just me or do you HATE eating salads when it's freezing outside?  Losing weight has made me cold all the time so this week, let's review some WARM COZY VEGGIE SOUPS....aaaaahhhhh that sounds so warm and filling....

This soup was so delicious that the three of us ended up eating it all in one sitting.

I have labeled this as 'easy' but the peeling and cutting up of the butternut squash was a pain.  If you are in a hurry you might want to buy it frozen, (as long as it doesn't have preservatives and stuff added to it) or find it already cut up in the produce section.

Next time I make it I might experiment with roasting it or putting it in the crockpot to soften it up.  Has anyone else tried that?

This soup would be great on all Stages of P10.

Simple Butternut Squash Soup

serves 4-6

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

1 onion, peeled and chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

2 lbs butternut squash, peeled and diced

3 cups vegetable or chicken stock or broth

salt and freshly ground pepper

parsley for garnishing

Heat the oil and butter in a large saucepan and gently saute the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes.

Add the squash and stock and stir well, bring to a boil.  Lower the heat, cover and simmer for about 25 minutes or until the squash is soft.

Blend the soup with an immersion blender or carefully transfer to a blender and puree until smooth.   If soup is too thick, thin with more broth or add a splash of cream or milk.

Season to taste and serve hot.

We enjoyed this garnished with Parmesan cheese and toasted hulled sunflower seeds.

1/2 cup of soup = 1 veggie serving

Print this recipe:  Butternut Squash Soup

Cheesy Crust Pizza-grain free!

What better way to wrap up pizza week than with my favorite recipe for pizza - enjoy!
PS:  run to the store, grab what you need and make this for dinner tonight!

This is the best grain free pizza crust I have tried to date AND BEST OF ALL - you can hold it like a regular crust pizza and it tastes like one too.  My family could not tell the difference and for those of us craving pizza, this recipe will make you happy and satisfied.

This recipe is courtesy of Free Coconut Recipes and not only does she post the recipe, she also made a video to show how to make it which was very cool…I’m not quite that cool yet.

Here’s the link to Free Coconut Recipes' Gluten Free Pizza Crust.

http://www.freecoconutrecipes.com/index.cfm/2010/2/1/glutenfree-pizza-crust

I have posted the same recipe below with my little tweaks, one of which is that I took the recipe and used 1 1/2 times the ingredients and that was enough to fill a large square baking sheet, which comes out to about 12 pieces of pizza, which is just right for us. 

But you could make extra dough and make personal sized pizzas if you'd like...



I was in a hurry so I just threw on sauce, cheese, cooked organic ground beef and some fresh chopped ham.  But next time I’m definitely gonna charge this up with some freshly sautéed onions and garlic and veggies.

Also – I’m going to make this crust and then slice it up to use as bread and see how that works…

Cheesy Pizza Crust-grain free

Makes 12 pieces – one large baking sheet

Crust:

3 cups (12 oz) whole milk organic mozzarella cheese, shredded

3 large organic eggs

3 tablespoons flax meal

3 tablespoons coconut flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cut 2 pieces of parchment paper out for baking sheet.

Coat hands with olive oil.

Mix cheese, eggs, flax, coconut flour, and baking powder together until a sticky wet dough is formed. Spread with a spatula (or your hands) to 1/4 inch thickness on a baking sheet lined with one piece of parchment paper.

Bake for 30 minutes in preheated oven. Halfway through the baking process, flip crust over by sliding it off the baking sheet with the parchment paper, placing the second piece on the sheet, and turning the crust over unto the new sheet and peeling the old paper off. Return to oven until done baking.

Remove from oven, slide off of parchment paper, and flip over again for cooling. Once crust is cooled, top with sauce, cheese, pre-cooked veggies or meats (see below). Set crust with toppings under the broiler on high for a minute or two until cheese is melted and bubbly. Slice and serve.

Toppings:

2 cups (8 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese

12 oz pizza sauce

Choice of veggie toppings-cooked: bell peppers, onions, garlic, spinach, olives, mushrooms, zucchini, etc.

Choice of meat toppings-cooked:  ground turkey, diced chicken, diced nitrate free sausage

Fresh or dried basil

Fresh or dried oregano

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese



Sorry I started slapping on sauce before I remembered to take the picture of the crust!



Grilled Portobello Pizza

This week let's talk PIZZA....pizza is one of my triggers.  I can't resist it, and don't tell anyone else, but back in the days of my first marriage when I hated life and loved cheese, I would order a Pizza Hut small six-cheese pizza and eat it myself....talk about a food coma! 
Of course now I love life and still love cheese but I don't get it from Pizza Hut.

Let's start off our Monday with an easy way to get your pizza fix - completely vegetarian!

Today's recipe is courtesy of Cindy Elder - she is an experimenting machine!  She's always throwing stuff together and coming up with neat ideas.  I LOVE this one!  And like she says, you can change it up any way you'd like and come up with your own version of...

Grilled Portobello Pizza

makes 1 serving

recipe courtesy of Cindy Elder

Try this pizza different ways - Asian, Italian, Mexican, curry, chicken...endless possibilities. Like the potato topper phase years ago!

1 portabello mushroom

1 cup assorted veggies, chopped

1/2 tablespoon butter

Garlic powder or other seasonings

1 tablespoon cheese, grated

Wash mushroom and remove stem. Put in the oven under the broiler, at high (but not highest) heat, and let it cook on both sides.

Meanwhile, sauté veggies in butter, (to your taste; I used red onion, bell pepper, zucchini, and later added chopped tomato) seasoned as you'd like (I used garlic powder) for about 5-6 minutes.

Remove mushroom from oven, turn upside down, carefully spoon veggies on top (inside the cap); return to oven and heat for another 5 minutes or so.

Add grated cheese and return to oven until cheese is melted. 

Chocolate Chiapioca Pudding

Let's continue with this week's 'Ideas with Chia' - here a dessert you'll love!

I loves me some chocolate pudding and I'm also interested in using chia seeds so I was eager to try this recipe.  I have a mixer at home and I'll use it at the drop of a hat so I did a cheater version and put everything in the mixer bowl and just turned it on every five minutes until it was ready.

I can't really tell you how much sweetener to use - it's a Jersey thing...no, but really, it's personal preference.  And I kept adding agave and it just didn't taste right, so I added some Truvia and that did it for me.  Wait until it thickens up a little and add the sweetener, mix, taste and then see what more you'd like to do. 

OH - and guess what else?  I had this after dinner one night and I had energy to get up and go - so out I went grocery shopping - and I also did a lot more chores around the house that night than I usually would so this will give you some 'get up and go'.   Best of all, the Kid, who continually mocks my chia gel ate a big bowl of this and thought it was tapioca - so neener neener on her!

One morning I had forgotten to make a new batch of chia gel for my smoothie so I plopped in some of this pudding instead and it worked just fine!  Pudding Smoothie, anyone?


It tastes better than it looks!



PS:  Isn't 'chiapioca' a cute word!  I can't take credit for it though, I got that from Robert on the WB Facebook site. 

Chocolate “Chiapioca” Pudding

makes 4 servings

adapted from Maria's Delicious and Nutritious Journal

3/4 cup chia seeds

2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk

    (or use plain almond milk and add a little more vanilla extract)

 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

pinch of salt

sweetener of your choice (agave nectar, Stevia or Truvia) to taste



In a bowl, mix all the ingredients together and then let the pudding set up for a few minutes.

Stir the pudding every five minutes.

After sitting for 20 minutes the chia seeds will thicken up and it resembles tapioca pudding.

Print the recipe:  Chocolate Chiapioca Pudding

Chocolate Pudding

As I was making this I was reminded that these are all items I use in smoothies (well, maybe not the lemon juice) but I was curious to see how this recipe would turn out.

It certainly was easy - except for the part when the phone kept ringing while my hands were covered in avocado.  I made this in the blender and poured it into ramekins.

NOTE:  Please for Pete's sake use a less ripe banana then I did.  A regular yellow banana would sure taste a lot better.  Both Bubba and Kid said 'dang, there's an overripe banana in this, isn't there?'  :(
But otherwise, this turned out pretty good!

Chocolate Pudding

serves 4

1 cup almond milk
2 tablespoons agave
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup of cocoa
1 avocado, peeled, pitted and cut into chunks
1 banana, peeled and cut into chunks

Add ingredients to the blender in this order, blend until smooth.

Pour into 4 ramekins or small bowls and refrigerate for one hour or until set.

Wait for your family to be freaking out over getting to have pudding and don't tell them what's in it.

1 serving = 1 serving fat and 1/4 serving fruit

Print the recipe:  Chocolate Pudding

Almond Flour Biscuits

Boy oh boy are you in for a treat!  These biscuits really hit the spot and they were so good!  And they were easy to make too.  I got this recipe from The Nourishing Home website and adapted it for P10 use. 

Have you missed biscuits?  Breakfast sandwiches, little sammies, etc.?  Well no more!

In the short time they existed at our house, they were covered with egg salad made with homemade mayo, served as a breakfast biscuit and as sandwich buns. 

If you're going to spend some time cooking ahead for the week, put these on your list.  And hide them from The Kid....just sayin'

Just a couple of notes:  This makes EIGHT biscuits.  I made twelve and ended up with some little guys.  Also, these biscuits have a great texture but are on the sweet side.  And they won’t ‘rise’ like normal biscuits, so if you want a high biscuit, shape it that way.

Now, back to our show!

Almond Flour Biscuits

makes 8 biscuits

2 1/2 cups blanched almond flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons butter, melted (or melted coconut oil)

1 tablespoon agave

3 tablespoons almond milk

2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine almond flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

In a small bowl, whisk together melted butter and agave, until smooth. Add the milk and eggs, whisking together until well combined. Using a spoon, stir the wet mixture into the dry mixture until thoroughly combined.

For quick and easy drop biscuits: Drop biscuit dough by large spoonfuls onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, placing the biscuits approximately two-inches apart.

For classic-style rolled-looking biscuits: Scoop a large spoonful of batter into your hands and roll into a ball about the size of an apricot. Then place the dough balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet and gently flatten using the palm of your hand.

Bake about 15 minutes, until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Serve warm with butter.

Mashed Cauliflower

If you haven’t tried this, I think you’ll really like it, and to be honest, my family can’t even tell the difference between this and mashed potatoes.  If you’re used to making mashed potatoes, this recipe is basically the same thing – if you’d rather use milk/butter or sour cream or mashed garlic whatever you prefer to make these – then just add what you’d like until you get the texture and flavor you want. 

Mashed Cauliflower

Makes about 4 servings

One head cauliflower, chopped

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/4 cup butter

2-4 oz cream cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

In large saucepan, add cauliflower and just cover with water, boil covered, about 10-15 minutes, until tender.  Drain thoroughly.  Mash cauliflower with hand masher on low heat (to help evaporate any extra liquid).

Add the cheese and butter and mix until well combined.

If you prefer them nice and smooth, mix with a food processor or an immersion blender.

And if you like it spicy, there's nothing stopping you from adding chopped chilies to this recipe!

 

1/2 cup serving = 1 veggie and maybe about 1/2 a dairy serving

Gravy and Biscuits

Holy biscuits and gravy Batman!

I added some extra meat to Bubba's plate 'cause he was hungry!

Raise your hand if you loves you some gravy and biscuits!  Now we all know that sausage gravy is the mega bomb but I've also made this gravy with ground beef and this time with ground turkey.  Sometimes my mom made it with fried bologna and of course, you may also know it as the lovely and delicately named 'sh*t on a shingle'   But a gravy by any other name would taste as good.(?)  However, I stopped making this gravy because of the white flour in the roux to thicken it and then the soft fluffy hydrogenated refrigerator biscuits used to serve it.  So then when I saw this recipe I tried it and we liked it!

I based this recipe from the Sausage Gravy and Biscuits found on Maria's Nutritious and Delicious Journal.  She made hers with organic pork sausage and you are certainly free to do so but I'm guessing you might already have ground turkey in your freezer you can use.

As for the biscuits,  I made a batch of Almond Flour biscuits (so quick, so easy, so good!) to create a lovely landing pad for my gravy.  But I'm sure you'd also enjoy this on mashed potatoes or Mashed Cauliflower.

Gravy and Biscuits

makes 4 servings

6 Almond Flour Biscuits  (I like to use 3 biscuit halves per serving)

10 oz ground turkey

1 cup (8 oz) full fat cream cheese, cubed

1 cup organic beef or chicken broth

Kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste

ground sage

Cook meat in large skillet over medium heat 5-6 minutes or until thoroughly heated, stirring frequently. Gradually add cream cheese and broth; cook until mixture comes to a soft simmer and thickens, stirring constantly until smooth. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Add ground sage to taste for extra flavor.

Split biscuits in half.   Place 3 halves on each plate; top with gravy.

Almond Flour Biscuits

Boy oh boy are you in for a treat!  These biscuits really hit the spot and they were so good!  And they were easy to make too.  I got this recipe from The Nourishing Home website and adapted it for P10 use. 

Have you missed biscuits?  Breakfast sandwiches, little sammies, etc.?  Well no more!

In the short time they existed at our house, they were covered with egg salad made with homemade mayo, served as a breakfast biscuit and as sandwich buns. 

If you're going to spend some time cooking ahead for the week, put these on your list.  And hide them from The Kid....just sayin'

Just a couple of notes:  This makes EIGHT biscuits.  I made twelve and ended up with some little guys.  Also, these biscuits have a great texture but are on the sweet side.  And they won’t ‘rise’ like normal biscuits, so if you want a high biscuit, shape it that way.

Now, back to our show!

Almond Flour Biscuits

makes 8 biscuits

2 1/2 cups blanched almond flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons butter, melted (or melted coconut oil)

1 tablespoon agave

3 tablespoons almond milk

2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine almond flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

In a small bowl, whisk together melted butter and agave, until smooth. Add the milk and eggs, whisking together until well combined. Using a spoon, stir the wet mixture into the dry mixture until thoroughly combined.

For quick and easy drop biscuits: Drop biscuit dough by large spoonfuls onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, placing the biscuits approximately two-inches apart.

For classic-style rolled-looking biscuits: Scoop a large spoonful of batter into your hands and roll into a ball about the size of an apricot. Then place the dough balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet and gently flatten using the palm of your hand.

Bake about 15 minutes, until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Serve warm with butter.